While growing up, Dimitris Manikis saw two diametrically different facets of his father’s personality. At home, he was a strict, no-nonsense individual who rarely smiled. Perhaps being orphaned at a young age during the Second World War, and burdened with the responsibility of seven siblings might have given him this hard edge.
However, when he was behind the counter of his grocery retail outlet, his attitude would undergo a 360° transformation. He would smile at customers and josh them, irrespective whether they purchased something or not.
While working at the family-owned business during his school holidays, young Manikis often wondered about his parent’s cordiality. He steadily understood this was not an act to boost business – his father genuinely loved people and more importantly, loved his work. These were two important life lessons that Manikis learnt early on in his life. He owes his ability to connect with people with ease as well as his passion for sterling customer service, a positive outlook and ability to put his shoulder to the wheel to his 91-year old father.
“Being miserable is easy and misery is contagious. If you are already having a bad day, what is the point of being upset about it? Instead, put a smile on your face and just deal with the cards that have been dealt to you,” he laughingly jokes.
Manikis always uses his unflagging optimism coupled with a people-first approach to find solutions to the toughest situations. Like the year 2020 that upended the hospitality business.
While the downturn put slammed the brakes of many hospitality investment plans, Wyndham signed several hotel agreements in India, including at Dwarka, Kasauli, Pune, Ahmedabad and Bareilly. Manikis maintained that these alliances were possible because the company took a humane approach – of putting itself in the owners’ shoes rather than focusing on profits and policies.
“As an organisation, we decided this was the time to think about our existing property owners. We devised ways to support them, by building proactive campaigns and strategies that could help them sustain their business,” he stated.
According to him, these efforts paid forward. Other hotel owners observed how Wyndham stood by its partners throughout the worst year that the industry had witnessed. It gave them the confidence that they could trust this MNC for a long-term association.
Most of this was possible because of a simple lesson that Manikis learnt during the pandemic – the power of gratitude. “We saw the value in picking up the phone and asking our partners how they were, and just thanking them for their support. You don’t always have to talk business. Calling up people and asking how you can assist them goes a long way during any adversity,” he explained. He is convinced that owners appreciated this people-centric approach, which resulted in the signing of deals in otherwise tough times.
FIERCE TIMES HERALD FIERCER OPPORTUNITIES
Wyndham Hotels is a young company in the hospitality business. Its parent company, Wyndham Worldwide, founded the hotel chain 15 years ago in North America. Within this short span of time, it has emerged as a leading global hotel franchise operator with about 8,900 hotels and around 796,000 keys in close to 95 countries.
However, while setting this steady pace, the company battled a peculiar problem. Many of the 20 brands in its portfolio were quite popular as individual entities, but there was a need to make people realise that it belonged to the Wyndham stable. “Our brands have an amazing history – Ramada is amongst the most recognised names globally and in India. Super 8 and Days Inn reflect the American dream, while Howard Johnson is known to always delivers a friendly experience. Yet, while people knew our individual brands, they didn’t know about Wyndham, the parent company,” Manikis revealed.
Hence, the company decided to suffix ‘by Wyndham’ with every brand to build better recall. Problem solved, and without much ado!
Wyndham Ahmedabad Shela was amongst the five properties that the company opened recently in India.
PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST
That is the approach the company has always taken; get things done with minimal fuss but maximum impact. This has enabled it establish itself strongly in various countries, despite the prevalence of bigger and more prominent brands in those regions.
Wyndham entered the Indian market in 2006, following a spinoff with Cendant Corporation, and currently has 49 operational hotels in the Indian sub-continent with approximately 4000 keys. It plans to develop around 30 additional properties across India, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Pakistan by 2025.
Nikhil Sharma, Regional Director-Eurasia, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts said, “Our teams have executed 18 new franchise agreements in India and have helped our owners break ground on the construction of 11 of these hotels. These are expected to open over the next two years, in addition to helping independent owners convert their hotels to the world’s best known brands on the industry’s leading distribution and loyalty platform.”
Wyndham is targeting tier-2 and 3 cities in India to launch properties like Ramada by Wyndham Gandhidham Shinay, since these regions provide a combination of demand and opportunity.
Manikis would rather shine the spotlight on how the company mentors its people than concentrate on number crunching. “The project pipeline is just numbers and not the only thing important in our business.
Pipeline, people, commitment to the market and ensuring the right value proposition is what truly matters. I believe in the power of a great team and we, fortunately, have one in Gurgaon,” he emphasised.
While hiring talent, Wyndham’s HR team, therefore, does not focus solely on a perons’s skills, but also their attitude. Only those who with a go-getter spirit combined with empathy make the final cut. According to Manikis, this fusion contributes greatly in building and retaining customer relationships.
“Moreover, transparency in today’s world is absolutely critical. When all these things come together and we have discussions with hotel owners, they understand our value system. They relate to our growth pace, and want to be part of it. And it all begins with having the right people on board,” he noted.
THE RIGHT PICK
Wyndham has two business models– franchisee and management contracts. Globally, it leans more towards the latter. However, in India it has chosen to follow the franchisee route.
Manikis stated this was not by design. When the company started its business in the country, it saw that the franchise model had a lot more room to grow.
“We also realised that we were dealing with owners who were extremely good in managing hotels themselves. So, we decided that India is where our franchise framework could flourish without introduction of the managed model,” Manikis stated.
At the same time, he added that there is an obvious demand for managed deals right now. Hence, Wyndham is engaged in some interesting conversations with white label operators for strategic partnerships. It recently signed a 10-year non-exclusive agreement with Nile Hospitality to develop hotels in India and Bhutan under a variety of its brands. These include Wyndham Garden, Ramada by Wyndham, Ramada Encore by Wyndham, Days Inn by Wyndham, Howard Johnson by Wyndham and Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham.
Under the agreement, Nile Hospitality will work with independent hotel owners to manage the day-to-day operations of the properties. While franchisee remains Wyndham’s key business model, the company is not unaware about evolving business realities. “I believe that a combination of the two models will give us a lot of future growth in Indian sub-continent, not just India,” Manikis stated.
MOVING WITH THE TIMES
Last year, most hospitality companies realised the urgency to introduce new safety and hygiene training as well as guidelines to boost confidence amongst owners, employees and guests. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts came up with the ‘Count on Us’ initiative that put health and safety of all three up front and centre.
Under this global initiative, its hotels were encouraged to appoint a Hygiene Hero to champion the new
protocols. They were also mandated to conduct regular inspection and monitor all public and guest areas in the property to ensure that they conformed to the health and safety set of rules prescribed by local authorities.
Interestingly, Manikis pointed out that cleanliness was always synonymous with the hospitality industry.
Following the pandemic, Wyndham has now made it a cornerstone of its business strategy to give customer confidence a positive fillip. Moreover, it launched hybrid meetings at some of its properties. Manikis opined that this combination of human interaction and technology is here to stay, well after the pandemic is behind us.
Hawthorn Suites By Wyndham Dwarka
To boost travel to its properties, Wyndham also launched a new tech platform, Easy Book, to simplify corporate bookings for small and midsize businesses in EMEA. Companies in the region could get a 10% discount on the best available room rate, by directly booking on this site.
According to Manikis, this move showed the internal staff how to leverage certain sales and marketing opportunities, while guests could book with greater ease. However, the decision to create this platform was not a knee-jerk reaction to the pandemic.
“We undertook it keeping the changed customer and owner habits in mind. We wanted to see how our mobile app could support guests to change their booking patterns on one hand, while on the other, we could provide strategies and suggestions to the owner to change their behaviour,” he elucidated.
Manikis added that Wyndham consciously steered clear of adopting a me-too approach, mimicking what other hotel companies were doing. “We do not believe in expecting different results by doing the same thing. Just because someone else had a great idea does not mean we update our app. Our bigger strategy was about influencing customer behavior to augment traffic to our hotels,” he stressed.
AN EAR TO THE GROUND
Flexibility was the bedrock of this tech-forward maneuver. Giving guests technology solutions was one thing, but making it easy and lucrative was another. Of course, it is not possible for any entity to have the answers to all issues on hand. That is where a person-first approach comes in handy.
“Always listen carefully and adapt accordingly. When something new comes in, try to incorporate it into your strategy,” Manikis advised. He credited this approach for Wyndham’s app becoming the #2 most downloaded one on iOS Store’s travel section. All because people saw some benefits on an easy-to-use app. “Technology is an enabler if you actually allow it to be. Otherwise, it could be a very difficult thing to manage,” he cautioned.
When Ramada by Wyndham Mussoorie Mall Road opened in August 2020, it hoped to add more than 80 jobs to the local community
Ease of use was the buzzword with the Easy Book platform and new rollouts on the mobile app. After all, guests had many things on their minds last year – work, health, wellbeing of the family, etc. If things were not user-friendly, they would not have the time or patience to deal with a brand.
“We ensured that everything we did was user-friendly and easy to use. We provided guidance to change guest behaviour, because that is what people wanted. I’m glad to say that it’s actually paying off,” Manikis pointed out.
He might have a point there. After all, Wyndham’s hotels have reopened, its owners have managed to steer clear of bankruptcy and its performance on the stock market has improved. This underlined what Manikis has maintained all his life – when you put people first, it pays rich dividends always.
